From Quills to Thrills: Writing Action

Action Scenes are FUN

As I was writing my first book, I knew I wanted at least a few good action scenes.

One of my favorite films is The Scarlet Pimpernel with Anthony Andrews. Oh my goodness, if you haven’t seen it, cancel your plans for tonight and watch it. You can thank me later. One of the greatest scenes of that movie is the final standoff between our hero, Sir Percy Blakeney, and our villain, Citizen Armand Chauvelin. It’s thrilling, it’s satisfying, and the moment Percy deftly slices the buttons off Chauvelin’s vest is iconic. It’s so, so good.

I’m also a big fan of The Count of Monte Cristo with Jim Caviezel. That movie has another incredible final duel.

There are many others, of course. The Indiana Jones series delivers some of the most entertaining fight scenes ever filmed. And who doesn’t love a classic John Wayne gunfight?

I wanted to at least try to create an action scene that would give my readers that same spark of “Ooh, what’s going to happen next?” I also didn’t want to leave my heroine out, so I made sure she had a role in the excitement. I took a little of everything I love, tossed it all into a bowl, gave it a good whisk, and came up with several action scenes to my liking. And I enjoyed every minute of writing them.

I have to give a shoutout to my husband, who reenacted these scenes for me blow-by-blow so I could follow along and make them as realistic as possible (he’s pretty great). Nobody likes to read an action scene where you repeatedly get lost and wonder, “What’s going on here?” or “How on earth did he just do that?”

Action scenes should be immersive, engaging, and easy to follow. Sometimes writing them can be just as difficult as the action itself!